I’ll be in beautiful Mountain View, CA all day today for “From the Frontlines,” our ground-breaking web-a-thon for the troops. Move America Forward’s Melanie Morgan and I will go live on Ustream.TV and right here at MichelleMalkin.com (as well as at HotAir.com) at 4pm Eastern/1pm Pacific. (Just hit the play button on the embedded video player above when showtime arrives; if you’d like to join the live chatroom, make sure to register at UStream beforehand!) I’ll be updating this post all day as I liveblog the event from UStream’s studios. Thanks to all our fellow bloggers who’ve helped spread the word!

We’ve got a star-studded line-up of troops, military charities, celebs, and talk radio stars — from Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin to Dr. Laura and Laura Ingraham to musician John Ondrasik and “Lone Survivor” author and Navy SEAL hero Marcus Luttrell — who’ll be joining us in our eight-hour marathon fund-raising drive to help send the largest number of care packages in history to our men and women in uniform serving overseas.

Sean Hannity announced yesterday that he’s personally donating $15,000 to the From the Frontlines effort. Awesome. Here’s my challenge to regular readers and commenters of this site and Hot Air. At the end of the web-a-thon, I’d like to see you collectively match that donation. Can you take up the challenge and make a pledge? Can you all help me walk the troop-supporting walk and raise $15,000 by the end of the night? Can we do it? Yes, you can.

You can sponsor a care package right here, with items ranging from $15.99 to $899.99. Let me know what you picked out (leave it in in comments or e-mail me) so I can keep a running tally.

I’ll start things off with the purchase of a $499 “The Deluxe Platoon Pack,” which contains:

As it happens, today is the birthday of the greatest, most decorated Marine in American history: Lieutenant General Lewis Burwell “Chesty” Puller. He was born June 26, 1898. We couldn’t have picked a better day to hold “From the Frontlines.” General Puller’s heroism, esprit de corps, and leadership are legendary. And an inspiration to us all:

Born in the peaceful village of West Point, Virginia, where his father had a wholesale grocery business, Puller was reared on tales of Confederate glory. His grandfather, Maj. John Puller, a heroic cavalryman, was killed in 1863. Determined on a military career, Puller completed one year at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) before enlisting in the U.S. Marine Corps in August 1918. VMI may have given him the exaggerated military bearing for which he was nicknamed, but it was during more than four years as a Marine NCO and concurrent lieutenant of the Gendarmerie d’Haiti (1919–23) that Puller developed his distinctive leadership techniques: perfectionism; mission overachievement; and fearless, inspirational conduct under fire. Varied assignments followed his commissioning in 1924, including two tours in Nicaragua, in each of which he was awarded the Navy Cross. His third and fourth Navy Crosses came during World War II at the Battle of Guadalcanal and at Cape Gloucester on New Britain Island; and the fifth in Korea where Puller commanded the 1st Marine Regiment in the assault landing at Inchon, the seizure of Seoul, and the fighting at the Chosin Reservoir.

Fuller was promoted to brigadier general in 1951 and to lieutenant general upon retirement in 1955. During the 1950s, the colorful and outspoken Puller gained attention as a champion of tough, realistic training; a defender of the basic soundness of American youth; and a critic of higher leadership. His legend continued to grow; photographs of his bulldog visage hung in homes and service clubs across the country as a symbol of invincible heroism and fidelity to traditional military standards.

“All right, they’re on our left, they’re on our right, they’re in front of us, they’re behind us…they can’t get away this time.”
“Great. Now we can shoot at those bastards from every direction.”
“We’re surrounded. That simplifies our problem of getting to these people and killing them.”
“Remember, you are the 1st Marines! Not all the Communists in Hell can overrun you!”
“Take me to the Brig. I want to see the real Marines.”
“Alright you bastards, try and shoot me!” (to Korean forces)
“Where do you put the bayonet?” (upon seeing a flamethrower for the first time)
“You don’t hurt ‘em if you don’t hit ‘em.”
“Hit hard, hit fast, hit often.”

If those don’t prompt you to pitch in and help the troops, nothing will! God bless ‘em all and stay tuned for the From the Frontlines web extravaganza.

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4:00pm Eastern/1pm Pacific. We’re about to start…get ready! Rush Limbaugh is scheduled to come on about 4:20pm/1:20pm.

Rush is blasting the PBS documentary airing next week on how America was morally equivalent to our enemies during WWII. Joined us by webcam from Palm Beach.

4:40pm Eastern. Oliver North is with us now via webcam.

5:17pm Eastern. We’ve reached the $297,283 mark!!!

5:33pm Eastern. Sean Hannity is on.

6:41pm Eastern. John Ondrasik just gave an amazing interview. I’ll try and clip it for you later.

7:25pm Eastern. We’re taking a quick technical intermission. Back in a flash.

7:30pm Eastern. Current tote board total: $448,553!

8:42pm Eastern. New total: $614,448!!!

10:05pm Eastern. Laura Ingraham has kicked in $15,000! Tons of great folks have joined us. We are now at $698,011.

12 midnight. We heard from the White House and the office of Gen. David Petraeus and troops from Ft. Leavenworth.